PRESS RELEASE: IRS Again Stonewalls FOIA Request on Political Targeting of Private Businesses
Key News Elements (full press release below):
IRS missed a required FOIA request deadline related to controversial IRS employee Holly Paz.
Paz is a controversial figure who was ousted from her position at the IRS following the Tea Party scandal.
During the Biden Administration, Paz later rejoined the IRS as head of a special investigative unit.
AIA is seeking information on Paz’s official activities related to allegations of political bias at the IRS.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 15, 2025) — The Alliance for IRS Accountability (AIA) today announced that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) missed an agency requested deadline extension related to a FOIA inquiry seeking information on the activities of Holly Paz, a senior ranking official at the agency in charge of its controversial pass-through audit unit.
Paz is a former deputy to Lois Lerner, a former senior IRS official and Tea Party scandal architect who, along with Paz, were ousted from their positions in the wake of previous investigations. Paz quietly rejoined the IRS under the Biden Administration and was subsequently placed in charge of a specially created unit within the IRS tasked with targeting business partnerships – a common legal structure for small businesses, farm families, privately-held manufacturers, and other employers.
The original FOIA request was filed by AIA asking for specific information on the official activities of Holly Paz, and another agency official, as part of the organization’s efforts to identify and address political bias within the IRS.
Chuck Flint, Executive Director of the Alliance for IRS Accountability, said the following about the agency’s failure to meet the extended deadline: “The IRS’s inability to meet yet another deadline shows that agency bureaucrats remain undeterred in hiding their activities. Missing two deadlines isn’t a coincidence; it’s obstruction. We demand the immediate release of these documents and the long-overdue removal of Holly Paz. Make no mistake, the IRS isn’t above the law, and we, along with taxpayers and businesses of every size and form throughout America, will hold them accountable.”
AIA views this failure as deliberate obstruction and a refusal to comply with federal transparency laws that exist to protect Americans. The IRS must be structurally reformed to ensure the agency is focused on objectively serving the interests of taxpayers rather than their own personal political agendas.
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The Alliance for IRS Accountability (AIA) is dedicated to protecting taxpayers and small businesses. The IRS is broken and operates with unchecked power. This has led to abusive enforcement practices and regulatory overreach that have unfairly targeted hard-working American taxpayers and business owners. AIA is building a broad alliance that will create a fair, transparent, and law-abiding agency that is accountable to individual Americans and businesses.
MEDIA CONTACT
Chuck Flint, Executive Director of the Alliance for IRS Accountability